A day in my life.

I awoke this morning to the usual sights, smells, and noises. I got a real treat and the girls allowed me to sleep in until 7:15am this morning. Alyssa was standing beside my bed, handing me my glasses and asking me to get up and turn the TV to her morning cartoons channel. I can hear Bella in her bedroom over the monitor yelling "momma, momma, momma." This is her usual way of letting me know she is awake and I need to come get her out of bed. I rub my eyes, take my glasses from my daughter's hand, roll my pregnant body out of bed, and walk slowy towards the living room. I turn on the cartoons for Alyssa. I continue towards Bella's bedroom and I see her standing at her crib with her pacifier in her mouth, and her blanket in her hand. She is happy to see me and reaches for me to pick her up. This makes me smile and wakes me up just a little more. Like every morning, she smells like a pee-pee diaper. When I'm really lucky, she has gone poop as well. There is nothing like waking up to changing a stinky poopy diaper. This is one of my all time least favorite things to do first thing in the morning. I clean her up and take her to the kitchen and start her breakfast. Like most things, Alyssa and Bella are very different in when they like to eat their breakfast. Bella goes straight for the kitchen and lets me know she is hungry as soon as she gets up. Alyssa likes to lay on the couch and watch a couple of cartoons before she is hungry and ready to eat. I am aware I will need to start working on a better morning routine for her this summer to ready her for eating before leaving for school everyday. Add that to my long and always running list in my brain. Check.
While girls are eating breakfast and watching cartoons, I go around the house making beds, starting laundry, a lot of times I will grab a shower. Something I've mastered as a mother is learning how to cut down on my time getting ready for the day. Unless it is needful, I only wash my hair every other day. This cuts a ot of time in washing and drying my hair, not to mention it saves me money on shampoo and conditioner. I don't wear much makeup these days. Just the basics to make sure I can look myself in the mirror. One bonus to staying at home everyday with kids is that they really don't care if you spend 15 minutes putting the perfect eyeliner/eyeshadow combo together, or what shade of lipgloss you choose to wear. The options in my closet to wear are limited these days thanks to all my growing body parts. This third pregnancy has been damaging to my physical appearance. I think I started getting larger the second after she was conceived.
My girls like to bath in the mornings. They love to bath together. This is great fun, however, a HUGE water and bubble mess for mom to clean up every morning. I sacrifice the mess for their happiness. Check. The girls splash and play and giggle, and complain when I tell them it is time for us to wash and get out. Thank goodness for a huge tub in my master bathroom now. It has saved my back in so many ways. But still with a growing belly, bathing the girls is getting harder. I corral the girls into their bedroom for dressing and then to the bathroom for lotion, teeth brushing, extracting of buggers in their noses, and combing and styling their hair. This is no small task as other mothers of little girls know. Doing their hair can be such a chore. Once again, the girls are different in this as well. Alyssa actual likes to have her hair cut, combed, dryed, curled, and played with. Bella could live without it. She cries everytime I've had her hair trimmed. She moves all over the place and whines when I try to do anything with her hair. I really don't know why I work so hard to get their hair looking cute, when 30 minutes after they are ready for the day, their bows are out and their hair looks like I never did it. Oh, but how cute it is for that 30 minutes right!?
Play time now. With girls it is always about dress up, makeup, tea parties, and pretending to run their kitchen cafe out of their play kitchen in their room. Most days the girls play really well together. Of course they have their times when they argue over this and that. They taddle on the other one for touching this or doing that. But, today. Awww...today for awhile they were running around playing and giggling and enjoying eachother so much. I sat in my rocking chair and watched them awhile as they played tag with this little stuffed bear. It was so funny and sweet it almost made me cry. I'm sure part because it was sweet, but part because of my raging hormones I've got going.
The day goes by so fast between running errands like: going to doctors appointments, grocery shopping, taking them to gymnastics class, and on playdates with friends. By the time lunch and naps role around, I am exhausted!
Being pregnant with my 3rd child, while I'm out and about I often wonder what and how I will be able to do these kinds of things again after this baby comes? Will I be a prisoner in my home? I keep waiting and hoping for a third arm to grow or for someone to come and surprise me with a daytime nanny to help assist me with the everyday things I need to get done with three girls in tow. But that won't be happening, so that is when it is time to do what is a long standing saying in my family, "Get my big girl panties on and get to work!" That is what mom's do right?
The girls are finally napping and the house is quiet. That is when I have to kick myself into 5th gear. I have laundry, cleaning, phone calls, and of course a ton of insurance billing that calls my name from my home office. Since this will someday be printed and bound for my children and my chidren's children to read, I must be honest in my documenting. I have to admit that since I've been pregnant, my 5th gear has kind of turned into 3rd gear. I still do what NEEDS to be done. But lack to motivation to do anything above and beyond that.
I really don't mean to keep using this pregnancy as an excuse for me being fat (sorry Alyssa, I meant to say unhealthy) and lazy. I've never been that kind of pregnant woman. I've always loved being pregnant and have never really minded the growing belly. But this 3rd time around- man oh man- it is kicking my butt!
(Side note: My dear sweet baby in my belly, if you are reading this right now. Don't feel unloved or unwanted. You are so much loved by everyone and everyone is so excited to see you that we can hardly wait. It isn't your fault that mommy is bigger and more exhausted with you inside me. It is a lot of other external factors that contribute to that.)
Naptime is over. Although I love to enjoy a quiet home for a couple of hours each day. I love it when the girls wake up and come snuggle with my on the couch for awhile when they are still waking up. We turn on the food network channel. This is a habit that we started when I was very sick in my first trimester. I was so sick I could not smell, prepare, or eat most foods. However, I found it fun to watch others do it. Sick I know. But the girls and I now love to watch Rachel Ray, Down Home with the Neeley's, and Paula Dean cooking shows. They make the best stuff and they are entertaining to watch. This also gets me thinking about what we can make for dinner and get new ideas for recipes. I don't mind cooking and baking. It is the planning and coming up with new good things to make that I hate. If someone did that for me everyday, that would make it so much easier. So watching others cook yummy things, gives me motivation to do it too.
Rob usually comes through the door around 5:30pm. The girls scream, "Daddy!" and run to greet him at the back door immediatly. I'm wondering why I don't get that kind of reaction when I come through a door? Maybe it is because I'm not often gone long enough from them, for them to miss me like that. When daddy comes home it is a party. They are crawling all over him, asking him question after question, and Alyssa's mouth is going 100 miles per hour telling him all about her day.
Being home all day with them and being used as the girl's personal jungle gym, I have to admit that I really enjoy sitting back for awhile and watching them switch all their energy onto him, and I have my own space around me to myself.

(to be continued...let's face it, I've got other things to do today then blog)